Mental Health problems are increasingly being linked with drug abuse, which damages many young people’s chances of success at school. You won’t be surprised about the groups that are at risk, but you may need to be looking at who your children spend time with.
Mental Health problems are increasingly being linked with drug abuse, which damages many young people’s chances of success at school. You won’t be surprised about the groups that are at risk, but you may need to be looking at who your children spend time with.
The NERF have published research identifying the most vulnerable groups of young people with respect to drug taking are:
· In care (for Any time between 10 and 16)
· Homeless
· Truants
· Excluded from school (temporarily or permanently)
· Serious of frequent offenders
Research has also identified children form families with substance-abusing parents or siblings (this includes alcohol) and young people with conduct or depressive disorders to be at risk of frequent (defined as the use of any drug more than once a month) drug use.
Only 28% of the young people in the Crime and Justice Survey were from vulnerable groups. Yet 61% of drug users in the survey came from these groups.
Only 5% of those not in vulnerable groups used drugs frequently
Only 4% of those not in vulnerable groups used Class A drugs in the last year.
An, as to be expected, children who were members of more than one vulnerable group had significantly higher levels of drug use than members of only one vulnerable group.
Parents may well feel that their children are OK given such information, but a great deal of drug taking is down to access and peer pressure – the 5% of young people not in vulnerable groups show that kids in ordinary homes can get caught up with drugs. If would be wise to keep an eye on your teenager’s behaviour to be able to identify any problems early.
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